‘Her performance touched millions of hearts’: Nicholas Sparks speaks out on Gena Rowlands’ Alzheimer’s diagnosis and ‘Notebook’ legacy

We often say that life imitates art, but this is one instance where we wish it hadn’t.

Gena Rowlands, the legendary actress who famously played an older Allie in The Notebook, has been living with Alzheimer’s disease for the last five years. The news was shared by her son and The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes on the occasion of the film’s 20th anniversary.

Book author Nicholas Sparks was quick to react in an X post, saying “On days like today, I’m reminded of Gena’s powerful portrayal of Allie and the depth she brought to the character,” which, Sparks added, “touched millions of hearts.” The actress, who was in her early 70s at the time, was reticent about taking on the role due to its emotional connection to her past. Like Gena, her mother, actress Lady Rowlands, also suffered from the neurodegenerative condition.

Gena told O in 2004 that had the director of The Notebook not been her son, she likely would not have taken on the role. “It’s just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie,” she confessed. Preparation, then, was paramount to do the character of Allie and the disease of Alzheimer’s justice.

Nick, who is Gena and actor-director John Cassavetes’s older child and one of three actor-director siblings, spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the irony of building Allie’s character with his mother and carefully discussing their portrayal of Alzheimer’s, only for it to play out in real life.

I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s. She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”

Gena played her last role in 2014 in the comedy-drama Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. In the ’70s, the actress and John Cassavetes became pioneers of independent filmmaking, working outside of the studio system and funding films with their own money. Their collaborations led to the actress’s two Oscar nominations for A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria.

“I’m truly honored to have worked with such a talented artist,” Nicholas Sparks noted. “I will always cherish her legacy in film and her impact on The Notebook.”